Pictures at an Exhibition

Complete prog nonsense

A lack of consistency is what this album suffers from for me. ELP studio albums already suffer from this a bit, but I find it even worse on Pictures At An Exhibition. There’s no doubt they are a brilliant band and they made a ton of actually great pieces. For every nice song on here, particularily at the end, there’s some needless and directionless soundscapes being made, which kind of sound grating with the harsh organ to boot. I still do like it, it represents the more chaotic and eclectic side of Prog Rock well. Emerson, Lake & Palmer didn’t always take themselves too seriously and as a bit of goofing around it works better than as some percieved fine art masterpiece.

¿Eh?

Pretty intense album. I liked it mostly except for The Old Castle. Didn't need that part.

The Sage was ok, but the rest was pretty dreadful. Marginally better than Tarkus, but not much.

Rip off of the Mussorgsky piano suite of the same name. Write your own stuff!?
It wouldn't be so bad if the piano suite itself wasn't so good, or the later Ravel orchestration even better.
Seems to be a Keith Emerson vanity project, spoiled by the needless earaching spaceship sound effects reminiscent of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's work on 1970 episodes of Dr. Who.
Needless to say I didn't think that much of this at all.

NEWCASTLE MENTIONED PART 4

This was really weird, but not like it a good way, more of a this was a bit of a chore to get through way.

I almost enjoyed the great gates of Kiev but they kinda ruined it.

Nutrocker was pretty good though, even though I wasn’t actually going home

2

W T actual F?

Beyond the fact that it's bad, it's also just dumb.

I'm annoyed that I had to listen to this. But I feel really bad for the people who bought a ticket and had to sit through this in person.

Pretty cool in places but those awful early 70s synths were just too grating.

At the intro I totally turned it off at first because I heard him talking and was like NO MORE BRITISH POP ROCK RIGHT NOW. Then I came back to it because I like writing reviews for all the albums. If i'd have stuck around for more than those 5, pushing 10, seconds, I would have actually liked it and I do. It's like one whole long song. There is almost no gaps for people to clap which I really liked. I like that there's not a lot of singing. The singing is kinda weird and I like it. I don't really know if they're tryna to put across a story...? If I looked at the lyrics (cannot possibly begin to understand them just by listening) maybe I could piece together the story they're tryna put out, but honestly, I'm okay!

Awwwwwww, WHAT? Symphonic prog???? Ewwwwww!!!! I jest of course. I don’t like prog in general very much but this is only 38 minutes so maybe it’ll be alright! Let’s see. Well, I wasn't incorrect about how much I would like it, that's for sure. Thank fuck this is only 38 minutes, it would be downright torturous were it any longer. Well maybe not torturous, because the big sin here is that it's really fucking boring. The entire first side is really just not anything very good at all. Nothing awful, but just so boring and detestable. Obviously I really don't love this type of music, and easily the best thing that this album ever did for the world was supply the excellent sample for "Katz" off of Lice, which to this day is probably my favorite EP of all time (Solace by Dar Qness is close behind though). The sample play for 10 seconds from 50 seconds into "The Curse of Baba Yaga" to the 1 minute-mark. That REALLY threw me for a loop though, wow. I like froze for a whole 5 seconds and then paused the song and then went to whosampled and realized. Anyway so most of this album is more or less worthless until it gets to the Baba Yaga part in which it's kinda interesting for like 3 songs... I'd like it a lot more if the guy didn't sing, but whatever. I don't dislike "The Great Gates of Kiev," in fact it's pretty good! I like the places where it goes, and it's... y'know it's an acceptable prog rock song! I honestly also like the outro with the super feedback-ey guitars and stuff. And then the transition back to the actual song... my man can't sing, but it's fine because the song's still dope. Then it goes into some bullshit about “death is life” though and then it goes into a prog version of… nutcracker… I… the only good this album ever did for the world of music was that Katz sample and that’s it. Sorry, not my thing.
4.5/10

An early 1970s live synth pop version of a composition from the Russian classical forefather of Modest Mouse, written a hundred years earlier, while he was literally drinking himself to death. There are so many reasons to dislike this that I can’t commit to just one. Let’s just call it a lesson in pretentiousness and move on.

De band degradeert de Notenkraker tot een 8-bits Super Mario versie. En dan hopen dat het toevoegen van een paar instrumenten het geheel laat rocken....Nope...

Part of me wants to grade this higher, as it's an interesting idea and I feel like we should be rewarding ambition. However, I really didn't enjoy listening to it.

There is no doubt that they are great musicians. And they do something really special. However, it's not my favourite kind of music.

Not the best version of prog rock, pretty hard to stand at times

Not bad. Felt like it went by quick but I don’t remember much of it. 3/5

A prog too far for me. The whole rock interpretations of classical pieces thing is so gimmicky. It's like James Last if you also like patchouli and joss sticks.

dvije petice za redom, je li moguće? da, jer je ovo naprosto nevjerojatno. odlično. možda zato što sam mislio da će bit sranje. elp me uopće nije privlačio, premda ih nisam slušao, činio mi se kao mim bend. a ovo je genijalno, divno. nadam se da su im ostali albumi podjednako dobri

I love how polarizing this is.

Personally I found it goofy. Frantic organ power noodling.

I understand the term "prog" and I hear it used a lot, but if this is peak prog I don't think I want to stay on the ride.

I saw another review talking about boss music - that is kind of how I felt listening. Like I was at the end stage of the game where you're frantically dodging fireballs and hammers and having a full body seizure trying to save the prince(ss).

Unrelaxing.

ETA Nutrocker isn't bad. Still feels arcade-y.